MySRP
I'm the Commercial Director.
We manufacture specialist lead products including radiation shielding for nuclear, healthcare, defence, and industrial applications.
Casting a shielding component for radiotherapy equipment.
Bespoke detector shields for high-sensitivity Germanium detectors used in research. Unlike most of our shielding applications, these detector shields are designed to protect high-sensitivity detectors from background radioactivity. This allows for high sensitivity measurements, which has applications in particle physics and astronomy.
As we have only recently become an Affiliated Organisation, we have not yet attended an SRP conference – but we will certainly be at the next one!
Myself and usually my colleague, Katie Bates. We would welcome anyone wanting to connect with us on LinkedIn.
We try to focus on sustainability with useful, reusable products. Our trolley tokens and sustainable bamboo mobile phone holders are always very popular.
It was officially incorporated in 1889. However, the company’s history can be traced farther into the past, certainly to 1799 when the iconic red-brick shot tower was constructed at the company’s old site, which was between Chester railway station and the city's canal. We're still based in Chester and now employ 120 people.
Before 1783, lead shot was made by casting (ie moulding it). Then William Watts patented the 'drop process', which produced better shot. He had realised molten lead would form spherical droplets if dropped far enough. The tower was built to supply lead shot for the Napoleonic Wars. Molten lead was poured through a copper sieve at the top of the tower and the resultant shot was cooled in water.
The tower was built around 1799. It is now a Grade II* listed building that has been incorporated into the city's canalside redevelopment.
The earliest products were cast lead sheet and the lead shot.
I think the recent winner must be the detector shield we designed and built for the Boulby Underground Laboratory. It is now 1.1km underground in a working polyhalite mine, helping with dark matter research.
We competed in this year’s Chester Raft Race, winning our heat. We are already planning our 2026 design!
The team with their raft 'To Pb or not to Pb'.
When significant events hit the news, we often get a stream of enquiries from concerned members of the public looking to augment their homes and outbuildings with lead shielding. During Covid, we had a very persistent enquirer demanding to purchase a lead helmet to protect themselves from the virus – we tried to explain, as kindly as possible, the impracticality of such a device.
We support many local charities and initiatives, particularly the Hospice of Good Shepherd and the fan-owned Chester Football Club.
By far, our people. As a small organisation, we rely on a culture of positive engagement, from the shop floor right through to the MD. It's wonderful to see this happen every day across the organisation.
One of the team inspecting shielding components for radiotherapy equipment.
Protective, reliable and collaborative.
Though one of the oldest metals worked by humans, lead is still finding modern-day applications other than radiation shielding. I was fascinated to learn that it is used today in the flight termination systems of some space launch vehicles, and in the canopy fracture systems of fast-jet aircraft, because of its unique properties.
Unfortunately not, but we have quite a few passionate pet owners in the company who love to share pictures of their pets’ shenanigans.
We do a lot of work in the radiological protection space, and I have found the RP community very engaging to collaborate with. Although I look after our sales and commercial arrangements, my background is technical. I love nothing more than getting into the details of an application or design and solving real technical problems. I am looking forward to having much more opportunity to do so through being an AOrg!
If you would like to be featured in our weekly Affiliated Organisation Interview column (or would like to recommend someone) please email sara.harrington@srp-uk.org